MIAMI -- Next Tuesday, just before 8 p.m., Heat partners Lew Schaffel and Billy Cunningham will, with wide grins, announce the Heat`s first-round draft choice, the fourth overall selection. It could be Glen Rice or Sean Elliott or Pervis Ellison or Danny Ferry. But it definitely will be the franchise`s first million-dollar man. Stu Inman, the Heat`s director of player personnel, will no doubt be smiling, too. Only for Inman, that will be the easy part, just the start of his night. Then Inman will get down to the real business at hand, the Heat`s second-round selections.

Rockets guard Vernon Maxwell apparently has a better shooting touch than memory. After Maxwell torched the Heat on Tuesday, he said comments made by Stu Inman, former Heat director of player personnel, always motivate him against Miami. Maxwell claimed Inman, who now works for the Mavericks, once told him he couldn't play in the NBA. Inman recalls speaking with Maxwell and an agent in a sort of fact-finding meeting while Maxwell was at Florida but denies passing judgment on the former Gator's skills.

Dave Wohl, who was recently fired as coach of the New Jersey Nets, was hired by the Miami Heat as a scout. He will concentrate in the New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas. He will work closely with director of player personel Stu Inman and owner Billy Cunningham. "Dave will be with us at least through the dispersal and college drafts," Cunningham said.

After serving as the Heat's first director of player personnel, Stu Inman knows all about struggles, understands plenty of what the Heat went through during its 15-67 start in 1988-89 under coach Ron Rothstein. That's why Inman, now a consultant with the Mavericks, warns not to give up on Dallas coach Quinn Buckner, despite his team's lousy start. "Anybody who gets to know Quinn has to like him," Inman said. "He's a very bright kid, very driven. He has a good feel for the game and reads people well.

Several times the past week, Michigan`s Glen Rice and the Heat have missed connections on interviews. Thursday, Stu Inman, director of player personnel, confirmed that the interviews have fallen through, but he would not say why. However, Michigan Sports Information Director Bruce Madej said there had been reports in Ann Arbor that Rice, a 6-foot-7 forward, had been secretly married. The reports could not be confirmed. Inman said the Heat would continue to seek an interview with the Big Ten`s all-time leading scorer and Final Four MVP. -- IRA WINDERMAN

Rockets guard Vernon Maxwell apparently has a better shooting touch than memory. After Maxwell torched the Heat on Tuesday, he said comments made by Stu Inman, former Heat director of player personnel, always motivate him against Miami. Maxwell claimed Inman, who now works for the Mavericks, once told him he couldn't play in the NBA. Inman recalls speaking with Maxwell and an agent in a sort of fact-finding meeting while Maxwell was at Florida but denies passing judgment on the former Gator's skills.

The Miami Heat`s director of player personnel said the team is interested in Kansas State`s Mitch Richmond and Kentucky`s Winston Bennett in the college draft. Richmond, a 6-foot-5, 225-pound graduate of Boyd Anderson High School, could play guard or small forward, Stu Inman said. "Along with all the other scouts and coaches across the country, I really like him," Inman said. "He shoots well, dribbles well, he is aggressive. Mitch Richmond will without a doubt be selected in the first half of the first round."

After serving as the Heat's first director of player personnel, Stu Inman knows all about struggles, understands plenty of what the Heat went through during its 15-67 start in 1988-89 under coach Ron Rothstein. That's why Inman, now a consultant with the Mavericks, warns not to give up on Dallas coach Quinn Buckner, despite his team's lousy start. "Anybody who gets to know Quinn has to like him," Inman said. "He's a very bright kid, very driven. He has a good feel for the game and reads people well.

The Miami Heat has scheduled a 10:30 news conference this morning to announce its director of player personnel. It is expected to be Stu Inman, who recently resigned from a similar position with the Milwaukee Bucks. Inman wasn`t in his Milwaukee office Monday, and Heat officials declined to comment about the possibility of Inman`s selection. Lewis Schaffel, the Heat`s operating partner, said last week he hoped to have an announcement "in the short term" about the director of player personnel and said Inman was the "most desirable name" on a list of candidates.

CORAL GABLES -- After evaluating the results of Orlando Graham`s physical, the Miami Heat opted Monday not to sign the second-round pick from Auburn- Montgomery. "We felt he was not in condition to make a dent on this team," said Stu Inman, director of player personnel. "He was very weak. He has not lifted a thing in his life." Inman said Graham, who reported at 243 pounds, has returned to his Alabama home. "If we thought there was a place for Orlando, we wouldn`t have objected (to signing him)

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Stu Inman had to settle for an informal reunion Thursday with Heat coach Kevin Loughery. The team`s former director of player personnel already had made plans to attend Thursday night`s Oregon State-Southern Cal game before realizing the Heat would be in town. So Inman, who still scouts in an "emeritus" role for the Heat while semi-retired in Portland, instead spoke with Loughery before the Heat faced the Trail Blazers at Memorial Coliseum. "I told Kevin this morning that my read on this team is that it has a chance to have a good second half," Inman said, "a real comeback second half.

When NBA training camps open this week, there will be plenty of introductions in New York, only one major newcomer in Chicago and, likely, a moment of silence to remember the departed in Dallas. If the Bulls have it right in their search for a third consecutive NBA title, the less things change the more they stay the same. If the Knicks have it right, then change not only is inevitable, but enviable. And if the Mavericks` season goes as planned, it`s already time to think about next season.

The Heat may continue its exhibition-season island hopping with a visit to Barbados next fall. Last fall, the Heat beat the Bullets 109-98 in an exhibition game in a tent in Nassau, Bahamas. Next fall, Miami may take its act to a 6,000-capacity facility unveiled Monday in Bridgetown, Barbados. Heat Director of Public Relations Mark Pray and Director of Corporate Education Sybil Wilson-George were in Barbados over the weekend to tour the facility, which was built with technical assistance from China.

CHICAGO -- Throughout the winter and spring of `84, Stu Inman chased Michael Jordan cross-country. From the Chapel Hill campus of the University of North Carolina to the Bloomington campus of Indiana University to the Olympic Trials in Colorado Springs, Colo. And at each stop, there was one nagging question: "Would there be too much repetition?" For Inman, then general manager of the Portland Trail Blazers, it was a legitimate concern. So one year after selecting Clyde Drexler in the first-round of the 1983 draft, Inman bypassed Jordan in the first round, despite exhaustive research that included frequent chats with buddy Bobby Knight, the Indiana coach who coached Jordan on the `84 Olympic team.

ORLANDO -- Stu Inman confirmed Tuesday that he is nearing the end of his full-time tenure as the Heat`s director of player personnel. Miami hasn`t decided how it will replace the veteran talent evaluator. "We haven`t talked about it," Heat Partner Billy Cunningham said during practice at the Orlando All-Star Classic. "We really haven`t spent any time on it." Inman said he plans to ease into part-time duty in summer after returning to Oregon, where he worked for the Trail Blazers for 16 years and his five children and their families live.

LAKE WORTH -- After stints with the Trail Blazers and Bucks, and after handling negotiations with the Heat`s initial crop of second- and third-round draft picks, Stu Inman has spent the past two seasons safely removed from the sometimes seamy world of contract talks. But, for the Heat`s director of player personnel, there does remain one contract issue still at hand: His own. Inman`s four-year contract expires at the end of this season. "It seems like 10 years ago," he said, with a grin, of his initial days in the Heat`s former offices in Chopin Plaza.

MIAMI -- For Stu Inman, it was a case of good news and better news Tuesday. First, he was introduced as the Miami Heat`s director of player personnel. Then, he learned he had become a grandfather for the seventh time with the birth of Megan Alyssa to Inman`s son, David, and his wife, Nancy. When told of Inman`s granddaughter, Heat operating partner Lewis Schaffel embraced Inman, 61, and said, "It has been a great day." Schaffel and general partner Billy Cunningham were as happy to get Inman as Inman was to get an addition to his family.

In what is part of a yearlong list of firsts, the Miami Heat will hold its first free-agent camp May 30-June 1. Stu Inman, the NBA expansion team`s director of player personnel, said the camp will feature "kids returning from Europe, two or three of the better CBA people and a couple of odd free agents." The camp most likely will be held at Florida International University. Inman emphasized the camp is an invitational camp, "or else we`d wind up with 800 players there." About 12 players are expected to be invited for the sessions that will be closed to the public.

Is there a Spencer for hire? For the Heat, that may be the primary question in tonight`s NBA draft. Whether Louisville center Felton Spencer will be the answer (or even available) when the Heat selects at No. 9 is another story. With the predraft trading deadline not until 2 p.m. today, just about anything remained possible Tuesday. About all that was certain, when the Heat staff called it a night, was Miami would bring the Nos. 9, 15 and 30 (second round) picks into tonight`s draft, making it the lone team to hold three selections in the top 30. Most educated guesses have Syracuse forward Derrick Coleman, Oregon State guard Gary Payton, LSU guard Chris Jackson, Georgia Tech swingman Dennis Scott and Illinois guard Kendall Gill going in the top five, perhaps even in that order.

The names are familiar; they were ESPN fixtures during winter nights and had more than their share of network time on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. But when it comes to Wednesday night`s NBA draft, some of the prime-time players of college basketball may have to take a back seat to the Dave Jamersons, A.J. Englishes and Negele Knights of the seldom-seen, small-time college basketball. "It used to be where certain teams would draft by names," said Stu Inman, the Heat`s director of player personnel.